I gained direct knowledge of the life of the poor in big towns: I have lived the narrowing mechanism of its conditioning and feared it.
quote by Ella Maillart
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sonnet: On Knowledge
Knowledge is one thing priceless, people want;
Knowledge is something gained by labor long;
Knowledge is infinite; master, you-can't;
Knowledge is changeable, much like a song.
Knowledge is deeper than the oceans deep;
Knowledge is larger than the Universe;
Knowledge is barely in life, just a peep;
Knowledge if badly used becomes God's curse.
Knowledge remains undiminished, tho' you- share;
Knowledge gives man, a civilised outlook;
Knowledge if improper, you ought to pare;
Knowledge is gained from Nature and by book.
Knowledge can make a man a wiser one;
Knowledge gives Wisdom in the longer run.
poem by John Celes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Conditioning
Well youre not, youre not who you think you are
Well we think that you are john or dave
But youre not, youre not who you think you are
Jumbled mass of preconceived ideas
From our birth we were given an identity
People told us we were great or small
From our birth we were given rules of right or wrong
Not forgetting the bullies at school
The world teaches us to think that life is full of limitations
The world tries to make us think that there are loads of limits
The world teaches us to think that life is full of limitations
The world tries to make us think that there are loads of limits
Welcome to conditioning
Welcome to conditioning
And as the world makes us feel great
And as the world makes us feel small
Oh so convinced of our identity
If we only knew it we just cant believe it we just wont believe it
Leading us to think that we are such a success
Conning us to think that we are just a failure
Leading us to think that we are so intelligent
Conning us to think that we are just a do-do do-do
Welcome to conditioning
Welcome to conditioning
Who is to say what is what
Welcome to conditioning
Who is to say what is what
Welcome to conditioning
Who is to say what is what
Er, sorry, ha ha
Who is to say what is what
Welcome to conditioning
Who is to say what is what
Welcome to conditioning
Who is to say what is what
Welcome to conditioning
song performed by by Howard Jones
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Who You Are
Who you are is equivalent to the knowledge
that you obtain throughout your life
and the passion you have for using and
sharing that knowledge with other people.
It is with this knowledge
that we create our own future
and the future for those to come.
I strongly believe that every bit of knowledge I have gained
has been connected to everything I have done,
everyone I have known, and all I will do in my life.
poem by F.L. Racca Sr.
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Six Foot Man
Well I was born six feet tall,
With no loving at all,
Had to rummage through my life of misery.
I had to go from place to place,
Never recognise my face,
I'm the moody man you never ever see.
Well, one day I placed a bet,
With the money I had left,
Did not know what the future held for me.
Through all the suffering and the pain,
If there's one thing that I've gained,
That's the patience that I now receive.
Poor boy,
Rich boy,
Well, what you gonna do boy?
Now that you have taken all the joy, oh, oh, oh.
And by the very next week,
I had headed a lucky streak,
I had won the lottery, four million pounds.
Opinion seemed to change so fast,
People hear that you've got cash,
? every single woman in this town.
Now I've got my limousine,
And the yacht upon the sea,
And the thousand friends I've never met before.
Through all the suffering and the pain,
Butthere's one thing that I've gained,
That's the knowledge that had when I was poor.
I was a poor boy,
Now I'm a rich boy,
Well, what you gonna do boy?
Now that you have taken all the joy, oh, oh, oh.
song performed by by Zutons
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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For Claudia, Against Narrowness
Narrowing life because of the fears,
narrowing it between the dust motes,
narrowing the pink baby
between the green-limbed monsters,
& the drooling idiots,
& the ghosts of the Thalidomide infants,
narrowing hope,
always narrowing hope.
Mother sits on one shoulder hissing:
Life is dangerous.
Father sits on the other sighing:
Lucky you.
Grandmother, grandfather, big sister:
You'll die if you leave us,
you'll die if you ever leave us.
Sweetheart, baby sister,
you'll die anyway
& so will I.
Even if you walk the wide greensward,
even if you
& your beautiful big belly
embrace the world of men & trees,
even if you moan with pleasure,
& smoke the sweet grass
& feast on strawberries in bed,
you'll die anyway-
wide or narrow,
you're going to die.
As long as you're at it,
die wide.
Follow your belly to the green pasture.
Lie down in the sun's dapple.
Life is not as dangerous
as mother said.
It is more dangerous,
more wide.
poem by Erica Jong
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Sonnet: My Father
A man with ‘brains’ such, seldom have I seen!
A man sincere and honest to the core;
A man hard-working who had always been;
A man who helped but ill-will never bore.
A man so learned yet, did not have pride;
A man who feared the Lord and lived for Him;
A man so poor, no scooter did he drive;
A man who fought his life’s battles so grim.
A man who kept all thoughts of sin off mind;
A man who fought for social justice’s cause;
A man to principles good, he did bind;
A man who considered no man, his boss!
He lived a simple life for mankind’s cause;
Such was the kind of person, my dad was!
poem by John Celes
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Courage is a special kind of knowledge; the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.
quote by David Ben-Gurion
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Courage is a special kind of knowledge: the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought no to be feared.
quote by David Ben Gurion
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Ballad of Justifiable Homicide
They brought to me his mangled corpse
And I feared lest I should swing.
"O tell me, tell me,--and make it brief--
Why hast thou done this thing?
"Had this man robbed the starving poor
Or lived a gunman's life,
Had he set fire to cottages,
Or run off with thy wife?"
"He hath not robbed the starving poor
Or lived a gunman's life;
He hath set fire to no cottage,
Nor run off with my wife.
"Ye ask me such a question that
It now my lips unlocks:
I learned he was the man who planned
The second balcony box."
The jury pondered never an hour,
They thought not even a little,
But handed in unanimously
A verdict of acquittal.
poem by Franklin P. Adams
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The Sum Total Of What Is Known
Knowledge limit may be a dangerous thing?
Actual constructive knowledge lances...
with willful purpose intent blindness.
Truth or falsity information awareness?
Indites cause direct knowledge of a matter...
dictates a reasonable person inquire further.
The sum of what is known
is in truth a state of limitation
corpus body of truths or facts
accumulated over course of time
acquaintance gained by sight
experience or learned studied report
facts truths principles investigation
perception clear mental apprehension.
Experts research creating new boundaries
horizons involving using disseminating
special knowledge cloistered information
classified epiphany eureka manifestation.
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Keep Searching
In the lust for knowledge,
I have lost myself within.
I have forgotten who I was
and what a family was for.
I drifted into a world
not letting anyone else in.
Now I want to break free,
but I have forgotten whom I was
and the knowledge that I had gained
could not help me now.
As I ventured back to reality
where no one knows me anymore.
For years, I lived within
the world of my own choosing
and lost the essence of being me.
Now I search for things that I left behind,
things that are not there anymore.
They have disappeared
like the whispers in time.
I am left abandoned
and my knowledge cannot help me.
Everything I strived for
doesn’t mean much anymore.
I have lost the most important things
that makes a life survive.
Humbly I reach out,
but sadly, there is no one there.
I will keep searching for it
and see what tomorrow brings.
18 -19 May 2009
poem by David Harris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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It was luxuries like air conditioning that brought down the Roman Empire. With air conditioning their windows were shut, they couldn't hear the barbarians coming.
quote by Garrison Keillor
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Space Girl Blues
Space girls are as cold as ice
Theyll kiss you once and kiss you twice
Youll shiver and shake and then turn blue
Next you got the space girl blues
I want your mechanism
Give me your mechanism
Space girls always smoke for taste
Swallow butts and leave no waste
Just to show that they dont care
Theyll bite your face and burn the hair
Sado-maso is the rule
You want them they dont want you
The sun comes up the moon boo-hoos
Next you got the spacegirl blues
I need your mechanism
Destroy your mechanism
Destroy it!!
song performed by by Devo
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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You must have a thorough knowledge of the mechanism of banality to be able to rise above it.
aphorism by Valeriu Butulescu from Immensity of the Point, translated by Eva A. Ziem
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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With the knowledge I possessed
With the knowledge I possessed
I lived in comfort
No infatuation no disease
No greedy no enemy
Knowledge I possessed
And knowledge is the oasis
Knowledge is peace.
poem by Gajanan Mishra
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The purpose of the UN mechanism, this inspection mechanism, is not to engage in a cat and mouse game with Saddam Hussein and try to find weapons that the Iraqi government is working on concealing.
quote by Douglas Feith
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I Will Fight For You
He has been described as inexperienced.
And an arrogant, elitist with socialistic wishes.
It has also been stated,
He has no knowledge of foreign affairs.
Although global leaders prefer his judgement,
On issues similar to theirs.
Plus he is admired for his intelligence,
Integrity, discipline and even his temper.
He seems to be honest and direct when he speaks.
He can identify with everyone.
Including the average person walking on urban streets.
And...
He just happens to be Black!
'Using 'that' as an offensive mechanism...
Disqualifies him and his credentials.
AND...
I assure you the campaign we run,
Will not adopt or solicit racial tactics like he has done.
I am a war hero!
I will fight for you.
And I have the scars to prove it.'
~From inside which house, John?
From inside which house will you fight for us? ~
'Well...
That is up to you.
It is up to you and the other voters,
To decide who has the right...
To add the White House to our growing list,
Of property holdings!
And may I say this in all fairness...
If elected as your leader,
I will not raise taxes.
I will just eliminiate what's left to your way of life! '
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Science is a mechanism, a way of trying to improve your knowledge of nature. It's a system for testing your thoughts against the universe, and seeing whether they match.
quote by Isaac Asimov
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Mechanism Of Life
He was a handsome soldier, respectful and rich,
And lived a charmed life, without a single glitch.,
But life is an endless labyrinth, with temptations at every turn,
Put a leash around your desires or let your insides churn
The soldier gave in and stepped into the abyss,
Someone was keeping a count of his sins, he knew not of this.
He set in motion the wheels of a concept of great antiquity,
A mechanism created by a superior entity.
He lived a great life, satisfying every urge,
And finally the skies opened its gate for him, as the mortals sang his dirge.
At the gates of heaven, he was told his sins were far too great,
So his dreams of living in heaven for now, had to wait
He was sent back stripped off his memories, new birth, new life,
To struggle as a tramp, No elation only strife.
Not in a position to do any good, he was forced to steal,
Not a roof above his head, no clothes not a single meal.
He starved to death and left the world unheard,
At the gates of heaven he was a wounded bird.
Sent back as an ant, because of the sins he had committed,
His undying love for emancipation, still unrequited.
Without purpose, without thought, trapped in a body so incapable,
He knew no difference between good and evil, the blankness in its head was inescapable.
It wandered aimlessly along with its clan,
To finally be crushed under the foot of a man.
Thus the poor soldier who once fought for his nation,
Suffered for eternity and never achieved salvation.
Every man makes a mistake and no one is here to stay,
Everybody gets punished, the mechanism is built that way.
It leaves a man to rot without a dime,
In a different life, unaware of his crime.
For what attaches a man to his life are his memories,
Without it, he learns nothing, lost are his past glories.
A few men tried to warn us, through words, a dictum,
About this absurd cycle that continues, ad infinitum.
poem by SaviorsLavish Human
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Never lose sight of this important truth, that no one can be truly great until he has gained a knowledge of himself, a knowledge which can only be acquired by occasional retirement.
quote by Johann Georg Zimmermann
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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